Alex Cross

Point of fact last year’s Alex Cross, starring Tyler Perry was not the first film appearance of the titular detective. Morgan Freeman first played Cross in the 1997 film “Kiss the Girls” based on the novel by the same name, then later reprized the role in 2001’s “Along Came A Spider”. Originally created by writer James Patterson, Alex Cross has appeared in over a dozen novels. Tyler Perry’s iteration is connected to the Freeman versions in name only. This is a reboot in the most Hollywood of terms- taking interesting source material that has created a loyal following and completely polluting it with stale, overused elements that are so often repeated they could almost be called meme by this point.

“You’re not in the game, the game is in you.”

The story of Alex Cross is very loosely based on the twelfth novel in the series. The film follows Dr. Cross as he attempts to solve a series of murders, perpetrated by an elite ex-military assassin. This may sound familiar, and that’s because it’s a theme that’s been used over and over again. The remainder of the movie follows an easily assumed progression that leads Cross to a daring showdown with the assassin. For those concerned that there may be the intrusion of some new, interesting element in all this, rest assured: not only will nothing new, interesting or original happen, but everything that does happen will be predictable upwards of twenty minutes before it finally occurs. I’ll start with the good parts of this movie, because it will be a much shorter list. Matthew Fox is amazing as Picasso, the lithe sociopath plaguing our hero. His jittery mannerisms and feline movement are jarring each time he’s on the screen, he just feels dangerous. Edward Burns also does well as the sidekick, but is diluted by John C McGinley and Tyler Perry, whose performances appear as cartoons of what they think police and detectives may actually act like.

Perry’s performance is simply uninteresting. He lumbers across the screen, completely overshadowed by the talented performances around him. Furthermore, his character touts justice and what’s “right”, but his actions speak an entirely different story, closer to “any means necessary” rather than a true and just conclusion. Furthermore, many elements are simply not believable. Beyond the unlikely nature of someone’s ability to fire a rocket propelled grenade accurately from a moving vehicle, its even less likely that a military trained fighter, who we watch effortlessly defeat an MMA fighter early in the film, would have any trouble at all taking out an overweight detective with a doctorate.

“It’s over, right?”
“No, it aint over Tommy.”
Can it please be over now?

It’s disappointing that films like Green Lantern that turn $20 million dollars in profit at the box office are considered flops, while Alex Cross was left with a $4 million deficit and is already in the works for a sequel. It boggles the mind. Even with a run time of 101 minutes, the “mystery” of the film is completely explained in the last ten to fifteen minutes of the film. In my opinion, the fun of a detective movie is following the clues with the characters on screen, trying to deduce the motives or being shown all the things that I didn’t notice the first time through. By the conclusion of the third act of this film, the mystery has been so diluted by the attempts at action that the reveal is without any merit. The clues were so minuscule; it’s difficult to believe anyone would have been able to figure it out prior to its explanation. Originally released in theaters on October 19th 2012, Alex Cross starring Tyler Perry, Edward Burns, Matthew Fox and John C McGinley has been released to DVD and Blu-ray on February 5th 2013. For fans of the original novels, I highly recommend Kiss the Girls and Along Came a Spider, for fans of Tyler Perry; I’d still be hard pressed to recommend this film.